


let's begin again

by plinys



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/M, First Dates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 09:09:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19059574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/pseuds/plinys
Summary: “This is awkward,” Zari says, with a laugh, pointing out the obvious,  “I mean, I knew this was going to be awkward when Behrad said he had a friend but…” She trails off, her eyes settling on him with some sort of wide eyed expression.





	let's begin again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MusicalWheaten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusicalWheaten/gifts).



> this was sort of a fic commission for emily, as in i eventually owe you something better and longer than this, but i tried to write this to break my writers block, so in the meantime this is dedicated to you!

 

He’s not usually the sort of person that does blind dates.

Or well… Any dates for that matter.

After Amaya went back to her time, Nate had spent months just focusing on discovering himself, and reconnecting with his family, and figuring out what  And maybe there had been one or two sad friendship handjobs shared between bros, but that was just like, emotional support in his time of need.

Only now, the world is saved and everything is perfect. 

Everything was supposed to go back to normal.

But there had been something, a lingering feeling in the back of his mind that sometime was still not quite right. Despite Sara insisting that that was probably a lingering effect of dying and then coming back to life.

(After all, she was sort of the expert on this sort of thing.)

But the feeling had been there, lingering for far too long.

And then there had been the photo -

(“Who is she,” Nate had asked, holding up the photo, focusing on the girl next to Behrad in the frame. There had been something familiar about her. “I feel like I’ve met her before…”

Behrad had raised an eyebrow at him, “My sister? The like tiny child that just tamed a dragon? But, you know, the annoying fully grown version.”)

He was pretty sure that Behrad had been joking when he offered to set Nate up on the date, but with the world saved for the moment and things at the Time Bureau relatively chill, the idea of using his time courier to take him to 2042 for a blind date didn’t actually sound like the worst idea ever. 

Though he’s second guessing that, as he sits in some restaurant that is way too fancy. The sort of restaurant his parents would have taken him to for a holiday weekend dinner with some of his father’s work friends. Not the sort of place that he would typically go to on a first date.

Not the sort of place he would typically go to willingly under any circumstance.

Maybe he should have taken up Ray and Nora’s offer to make this a double date after all, at least then he wouldn’t be sitting there, worrying that he was going to get stood up over twenty years in the future.

He’s about to give it all up, write the whole thing off as a mistake and head home, only to freeze in his place as his eyes settle on the woman that has just entered the room. Nate would swear that he would have been able to recognize her anywhere, despite the fact that technically before this moment he had only seen her in the pictures that were scattered around Behrad’s room on the Waverider. There’s something about her that is just so  _ familiar _ , but he doesn’t understand it, can’t possibly understand it.

So he stands there, half out of his chair and stares at her.

Which, as far as first impressions go, is probably one of his worst.

“You’re Nate, right?”

“Yes,” he says, quickly, a bit too quickly, sticking out his hand, because apparently he’s at the level of awkward where he’s shaking hands with his date. Somehow a new low for him. “And you’re Zari?”

She nods, but doesn’t let go of his hand. 

“This is awkward,” Zari says, with a laugh, pointing out the obvious,  “I mean, I knew this was going to be awkward when Behrad said he had a friend but…” She trails off, her eyes settling on him with some sort of wide eyed expression.

And he wonders if she feels it too.

This feeling deep inside of him, like fate, or soulmates, or like there was some part of his life that was missing until the moment she had shown up. Maybe that was just the terribly romantic part of him, but the world had shown Nate all sorts of magic and for a moment, for  _ this  _ moment, it feels like he’s right where he’s supposed to be.

Zari breaks the silence, “You’re like one of his time travel friends, right?”

Well, it’s not like Nate could say anything about people keeping the whole  _ time travel  _ thing from their families, seeing as his had been very involved in the whole situation, but well… 

“You know about that?”

“Am I not supposed to?”

“I mean,” Nate shrugs.

Zari finally pulls her hand away from his, but doesn’t actually move to take her seat. Just continues to stare at him, with a look like she can see into his very soul.

“We’ve met before,” Zari asks, “Right? Like there’s some weird time travel nonsense going on here, right?” 

“At Hey World back in 2019 a tiny version of you tamed this dragon that had been about to kill all my friends,” Nate offers. 

He conveniently doesn’t mention that that was actually last week for him. 

“Yeah, that must have been in,” Zari smiles, “Made me a real mother of dragons back there, a modern day Daenerys Targaryen, but you know like the good remake, not the original with the rushed ending that made no sense.” 

“Wait, hold on, they remake Game of Thrones?”

“That’s really what you focused on here?”

“That was clearly the important part.”

Zari’s laugh is so refreshing, so normal and happy, that all of the awkwardness that had lingered between them seem to fall away in an instant. Like this isn’t a first date, but a reunion after so long apart, like old friends catching up. 

Suddenly, the idea of sitting down here, in some fancy restaurant where they don’t put prices on the menus seems like the worst possible first date idea. Especially considering a much better option has just been presented to him. 

“Crazy idea, what if we ditch this place and go binge watch Game of Thrones,” Nate says.

Zari shoots him a look that makes it clear just how  _ crazy  _ his idea is, and instantly Nate is speaking up to backtrack.

“Not like that, I mean,” Nate says quickly, “I’m not saying let’s go  _ netflix and chill _ , or anything, I just-”

“Do people seriously still say  _ netflix and chill  _ where you’re from?”

“The point was that we’re not actually going to be  _ netflix and chilling. _ ”

“Right,” Zari nods, but there’s amusement on her features, and she’s not turning away from him, so Nate is counting that as a win, “You do know that there’s fifteen seasons of Game of Thrones, right?”

“You do know that I have a time machine, right?”

“Oh well,” Zari says, slipping her hand back in his again. But this time it’s not awkward, it’s an offering, leading them away from the restaurant, and away for the blind date that they had been set up to, and instead to some moment that feels so much more  _ them _ . “In  _ that  _ case, lead the way Mr. Space Man.”

“So, again, just to clarify, it's a time ship, not a space ship."

"Okay then, Mr. Time Man."


End file.
